Seaside Park/Island Beach State Park would be my vote for a salt Jam. Guys with kayaks can bring 'em and fish the Barnegat Bay. I considered such a thing last year but timing was a bit difficult for me. May is a great month but is close to the annual jam. June is good too but I stay away from the beach in June due to crowds and parking and cost. October or November are prime time but may conflict with a steel jam. We'll see how the board feels by springtime - maybe we can have a one day mini event in early May perhaps (I wouldn't recommend anything before May). Make some proposals as spring gets closer. I'll certainly attend if I can.

Let me ask what might be a dumb ridge runner question? Are those stripers in Freds pictures (which would be ok with me if i could catcht them) stocked or do they reproduce naturally in the big "D"? That's something the locals up here have been waiting for on the Raystown Branch and it hasn't happened , they talk of the eggs having to roll so far in the current?

osprey wrote:Let me ask what might be a dumb ridge runner question? Are those stripers in Freds pictures (which would be ok with me if i could catcht them) stocked or do they reproduce naturally in the big "D"? That's something the locals up here have been waiting for on the Raystown Branch and it hasn't happened , they talk of the eggs having to roll so far in the current?

Osprey, They're wild youngsters. Stripers in fresh water impoundments can sometimes successfully spawn but for some reason they've never been able to this much in Raystown even though this lake has the deep currents. You're right about the eggs moving. There's a lake near Baltimore called Liberty that was stocked with stripers fairly recently and the fish do spawn successfully there now. For some reason the currents in that lake are favorable. Most fresh water striper populations are maintained by stocking fingerlings. The Delaware River fish migrate up the river to spawn and then return back to the bay and ocean. The little ones like Fred's holding will stay in the river longer.

There are 3 distinct stocks of stripers in the Atlantic, the Chesapeake, Delaware and Hudson strain. though there is some mixing. then there is the freshwater stock which started in the francis-marion area of s. carolina. This is where most stock came from in freshwater lakes

I wasn't sure if the egg rolling thing was just a wives tale or not , the guy that told me that does catch some nice stripers and lake trout , he fishes only at night and uses a thermometer and no electronics. I'd be happy to catch a bunch of those in that picture if i could catch 'em on a fly rod. The locals say the stripers are being caught as far upriver as Graceville near Breezewood. I guess what happens on that lake is that they periodically stock fingerling and small stripers to keep the numbers up , i think the record is like 60 lbs now.

Osprey, Yes, the Raystown fishery is maintained with fingerlings. I too have heard of stripers going pretty far upriver on the Raystown Branch - this is something of a false spawning run. I wonder if the local AFM has checked to see if there might in fact be some successful spawning.

Fishi........The story is that when they gain enough miles upriver where the eggs can have sufficient room to roll in water that suits them they will have a successful spawn. Like i say i don't know if that's true or not. As far as i have been able to find out there has not been a successful one yet. Some of the local guides target the rivers specifically so i'm sure they would be the first to know , probably before the PFBC. I was able to talk to Rick Lorsen a few years ago about this and it's pretty much wait and see. The Lake trout get fingerlings and adults from stocking.